The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1887-03-02

were let off before the bridge was reached
and that the train was then running along
by its own momentum until the brakes were
applied on the bridge as the rear of the
train began swinging off.
Notice of the accident was wired from the
St. Adams Office of the railroad company
Saturday morning to each of the commits
sioners. One of the commissioners and the
clerk of the board arrived upon the scene at
an early hour and while the fires were still
burning; another member of the board ar
rived soon after noon and all were present
before night. Examination of the premises
at the wreck and at the point of derailment
was begun soon after daylight and con-
tinued through Saturday. Forty-one wit
nesses have been examined, including some
who went down in each car, all the train
men who survived section man, car in
speCtor and railroad officials and employees
from within and without the state, and
others.
Facts pointing to the cause of the accident
on the inside of the curve, being the right
hand rail going north, the eighteenth rail
from the south end of the bridge. was found
to be broken at point nineteen feet and
seven inches from the end farthest from the
bridge, and the part broken off was itself
broken into several fragments, and at the
several points of fracture showed defect
running lengthwise of the rail on the inside
thereof, beginning near the end and about
one quarter of an inch from the surface of
the rail- and running back and gradually
extending deeper into the body of the rail
This defect existed in the bloom from which
this rail was rolled and nowhere appeared
upon the surface of the rail. This was a
thirty-foot rail, rolled at St. Adams from
Bessemer steel bloom from Germany, and
weighed sixty pounds to the yard The
seventeenth rail from the south end of the
bridge, on the same side of the track, was
also broken and crowded out to the right,
the outer spikes being bent down or the
heads torn Off and some of the inner spikes
were driven into the sleepers or ties. The
other rails on that side of the track and be-
tween the broken rails and the bridge were
crowded out of place to the right and
several of them bent outward, while all the
fish-plates were either broken or badly bent
There were tlange marks on the ties and
frozen earth, and also indications of heavy
blows upon some of the ties and earth for
several rods before the bridge was reached,
continuing to the abutment; also of abra-
sons or scrapings of the inner side of the
left-hand rail at different points, so as to
leave impressions and indentations, as if
made by some substance as hard as itself,
trying to climb those rails.
The middle journal of'the forward truck
of the sleeper Pilgrim " was broken about
midway between the wheels at some time in
the accident. One wheel and portion of
the broken journal were found on the ice
above the bridge ION the left-hand side as
the train was going) out of reach of the fire
or smoke; the other Wheel with its part of
the journal, was near two rods from it on
the other side of the bridge with the wreck,
both between the first abutment and the
first pier of the bridge. The journal was
indented diagonally across the fracture,
portion of the indentation being on one
side of it and portion upon the other side.
The indentation and the fracture both ap-
peared to be fresh. The journal was also
slightly bent at the break, and no defect
could be discovered in it, Robert Fletcher,
professor of civil engineering in the Thayer
School, Dartmouth College, who examined
this journal on the day of the accident tes-
titled that it had fracture such as he had
generally seen in fractures of the kind
partly granular and crystalline surface, and
that he did not detect any defect in it. Such
was substantially the testimony of the prac-
teal railroad men and mechanics who testi-
fled on this point. This journal was of
wrought iron, one of the standard journals
of the Pullman Car Company, made in Chi
cage. The bridge was a double lattice
bridge six hundred fifty feet long, built in
place of one burned in 1859, covered with
sheet-iron roofing. The seepers and track
lay above the deck with safety-guards, con-
sisting of timbers eight inches square, nine
teen inches outside and rising one and one
half inches higher than the top of the rails.
The approach to the bridge is through a
cut till near the bridge, then comes an en-
bankment, which becomes high for short
distance as it approaches the abutment.
When the rear car came upon the bridge it
was to the right and outside of these safety
guards. The board finds that the running
of this train was properly managed on the
part of all concerned therein. 1t was prop
erly slowed up as ii came near the curve
and bridge. The rules require a speed of
not exceeding fifteen miles per hour when
running upon and over bridges. The speed
here was considerably within the rules; the
brakes were gradually let on and off at the
the proper points. The opening of the throt-
fla and milling a n the train from
the falling cars by the engineer after his
discovery of the situation, is approved. The
efforts of the men to save all that could be
saved and their manner of doing it are COM
mended. The efforts of the railroad Off
Gals and their employees in the care of the
injured and of the remains of the dead for
Identification by relatives and friends, as
we'll as the services rendered by the au-
thorities of the town, who organized local
assistance for them in the work of humanity,
have resulted in the identification and de-
livery TO their friends of all the dead and all
but six of the wounded have been sent to
their homes These are being cared for by
the company and all are expected to recover
save one, and there is hope for him.
The board finds that the derailment and
accident were caused by the breaking of the
rail at the defective point above described;
that the breaking of this rail or the next one
beyond it caused the breaking OF the central
journal of the forward trucks of the sleeper
~ Ill8rlln Ill SOME way uuhHOWu W lue
board, but probably from the throwing of
some portion of one of the broken rails vio-
lently against it, the web of the steel rail in
denting the wrought iron journal, stralning
and swapping it in its frosty state, and that
thereupon the interior wheels of this truck
began to run irregularly and to crowd out
the inner rail of the curve and to strike the
sleepers with the broken ends of its journal,
and to abrase and indent the left-hand rail
in the manner indicated, until, coming to
the ties of the bridge with deep openings
between them, the car was thrown from the
bridge to the right, and those that went
down to the front of it were dragged off the
bridge in succession by the strong Miller
couplers that bound the train together. The
evidence was clear and conclusive that the
sleeper Pilgrim " was derailed as above
indicated, and the board so finds. And
there was evidence tending to show that
other cars were also off the rails before the
bridge was reached; but upon this point the
board has reached no conclusion, and 1t re-
CARDS this as incidental only TO its findings
that the opening of the throttle of the To-
connective by the engineer, as he saw the
rear of the train falling, detached the mail
car from the train behind it, and saved the
remainder of the train from wrecking. The
board regards it due to the corporation as
well as to the public to state also that from
the evidence before it it appears, and the
board finds, that the defect in the rail which